All,
As you know the Fjord Line ferry link between UK and Norway ceased to operate in September 2008. An alternative have been to use DFDS Tor Line freighters from Immingham to Kristiansand/Brevik, but the departures have been difficult to access.

As of this year, there have been some changes in the DFDS Tor Line sailing schedule, which may open to some more options. The best part is that they have opened for daily sailings (six a week) Immingham - Gothenburg (being only a 3 hrs ride from the Norwegian border and a harbour frequently used even by Norweigan riders going to Germany). There is now only a once weekly sailing directly to Norway, and then only to Brevik - not Kristiansand (there is also one going to Brevik via Gothenburg but takes 48 hrs, thus not a serious option I think)

DIRECTLY TO NORWAY (BREVIK)
Dept Immingham Sundays at 04.00 A.M., arriving in Brevik Mondays at 06.00 A.M.
Dept Brevik Fridays at 02.00 A.M., arriving in Immingham Saturdays at 03.00 A.M.

DIRECTLY TO SWEDEN (GOTHENBURG)
(awaiting detailed time schedule, but six weekly sailings to and from Immingham)

BOOKING ROUTINES
(have changed - awaiting details)

I'll update this info as soon as I've got it, hopefully in a couple of days.

If we're lucky we might - just might - have got ourselves a good ferry link between UK and Northern Scandinavia again :-)

__________________
HansP
All you wanted to know
about riding in Norway

Does this mean there are no car/bike ferries to Norway anymore? or is it just that one service which has been discontinued?

Thanks
IanD

There are no other ordinary ferries between UK and Norway anymore. Fjord Line operated the only ordinary car ferry between Bergen and Newcastle until Sept last year (Smyril Line may have operated its ferry to Shetland I'm not sure if they do it anymore. In any case it's a bit inconvenient as you need to use more ferries to get to the UK mainland). The DFDS Tor Line ships are cargo vessels which may accept passengers and their bikes. Some on this forum have used them, but the booking procedure have been somewhat awkward (max. 1 month ahead of journey, no guarantees). I was now told that there are some alterations to this. I am about to attend the Ripley HU Spring Meeting in June, and could book a return trip today if I wanted. I am awaiting info from Gothenburg as they have scheduled 6 sailings/week from there, making it even more convenient.

__________________
HansP
All you wanted to know
about riding in Norway

That will be good news if they have a proper service running again

I would contact DFDS and ask them how busy that route from Immingham to Gothenburg is at the time you intend to travel. I can only imagine that they run that often because there is a demand for it.

After my "Holiday" on Immingham docks, I would want to try and nail DFDS down as best as I could before I booked with them.

Steve

Just to re-post my thread from another page regarding the DFDS Freight ships from Immingham.

They have very few cabins and once the truck drivers fill up the cabins they stop taking passengers on. Truck drivers get priority over everybody else.

This was my post on another thread:


I will just add a word of warning about this method of travel which the company has also added on their letter.

They also do a trip from Immingham to Esjberg in Denmark where I live.

I booked a return journey from denmark to immingham with a small box van. At the time the "Warning" was not added to their stationary and I thought my bookings were solid, confirmed bookings.

The outward trip to Immingham was great and if that was what it was like all the time I would reccomend it.

However, when I turned up for the return journey I was told they had been trying to contact me to tell me that my place on the boat had been put back because a larger freight vehicle had been booked on.

After some searching i found the new driver and he was happy to share his cabin with me but the shipping company would not allow it. There was masses of room for the box van all the company had to say was "Yes".

I sat on Immingham docks for 3 days before I got on the boat back to Denmark.

I found out that they had been trying to call me on my home number in denmark to tell me my position on the boat had been put back. They knew I was in the UK so why they were ringing me in denmark is anyones guess.

The boat was great, DFDS were worse than useless.

If you travel like this make sure you have a few spare days at both ends of your trip in case you get put back. Ensure they have home numbers, e-mails, mobile numbers etc etc, so they can get hold of you.

Remember this is primarily a freight service and the bigger trucks will jump the queue and they will not just put anyone in the bunks. There are very few bunks on their ships.

The other side to this are that the prices are per person so it is also very expensive.

Steve